I have to ask... Why grid?

[Drac]

I've been thinking about this for a while and finally was spurred on to ask by another post on the board....... Why do you all draw grid lines on your projects?

I fear this is a really stupid question, but I am genuinely curious. I've seen the beautiful WiPs posted here (so much fun to see other people's stitching!!) and they all seem to have grid lines drawn on them, but I had never even heard of doing that before coming here. Initially, I was confused about what the lines even were when I saw them in the pictures. I've been cross-stitching stitching since 1987 and even the largest and most complicated patterns I've completed have never had anything drawn on the cloth. I just count as I go. On and off I went to the stitching get togethers at my local cross stitch shop I used to have and no one there drew lines on their cloth either.

The closest thing I've ever done to this was a single 4" dark brown thread I kept with my latest PINN Stitch project. I threaded it into the cloth to denote page breaks, since PINN patterns don't show any overlap lines when going from page to page, and just moved that thread around as I went.

Is it a regional thing to grid? Am I missing out on a cool technique?

[karen4bells]

I'm one that doesn't bother with gridding---and I would guess that there are a few others of us that don't---I think it's just a personal thing, to be honest

[cairee]

Gridding is helpful in preventing counting errors, as the biggest number you have to count to is 10. Like you I never heard of gridding before joining this forum, now most of my BAPs are gridded.
I use a water soluble pen on aida and metalic thread or monofilament fishing line on evenweave, as I find drawing the lines on evenweave difficult.
my own thoughts on the pros and cons of gridding:
pros:
pretty much eliminates frogging due to counting errors
saves time counting across large gaps (instead of counting 26 stitches you count 2 boxes and 6 stitches)

cons:
time consuming to grid when you would rather get stitching
thread grids can be tricky to remove if the threads were peirced or accidentally secured on the back. (avoidable by using metalic thread or fishing line, or by removing the grid threads as you stitch)

[pattiebelle]

I've been stitching since 1987, too! And I never heard of gridding until this forum, as well.

I tried gridding but got confused between the grid lines and my own counting habits. So I don't grid often, but I do use the "disappearing"ink pen to mark off counts over a long way across the fabric. Or even a short way, if the design uses alot of color changes and I'm tired. The ink fades away by the time I'm done with that area, and perhaps I've saved myself some frogging time...

[Fizzbw]

I love gridding (yep found out on this forum). It's a pain in the bum on evenweave though! I hate doing it with fishing line or thread so do it with pen. It makes counting much easier and especially on big full coverage designs it means I can cross country further and faster than if I didn't grid. It really has sped things up as well.

I tend to grid as I go as I'm too impatient to sit and do a whole fabric, though for so e things I will take the time.

I don't grid on hand dyed fabric, or not with pen anyway. I find I don't need it on the sort of a Joan Elliott, Nora Cobett and magazine projects I do though I do miss it at times.

I is tidally I thought it seemed to be a bit of a strange and silly idea, then I tried it.....


You Try it, you might like it!!!


HTH

Niki xxx

[fccs]

I had never heard of gridding until I joined the forum, either. I have given it a try and it's been quite useful on a couple projects with 100% coverage. I don't grid everything, but I think for some of my larger WIP's it's worth the extra time it takes before actually beginning to stitch.

[shadyglade]

I had heard of gridding before joining the forum, but had never really done it much. But I tend to count wrong a lot, and since I am a true cross country stitcher, since I've tried gridding I've found I make much fewer mistakes. So for larger projects, or projects I don't want to start in the middle with, I think it's worth the extra time to grid.

[Rose]

I have been stitching for many years and I have not found the need to grid. I am a cross country stitcher and counting some times can be tricky because I have found that I don't do it well all the time but I did try a grid once and it did not match with the grids on the pattern and I made even more mistakes. So I would rather be mad because I don't know how to count rather then I counted but the fabric and the chart do not match.


It is a personal choice and if you think it may make your stitching easier then I say give it a try. You never know you may find it to be something you can not live with out.

[Allyn]

The OP asked, "Why do you all draw grid lines on your projects?"

We don't all do it. I've been stitching for three decades, and I'd heard of gridding before joining this forum, but never felt that it was necessary for me. It's supposed to help with getting the stitches in the right places (I imagine it's more helpful when you cross-country stitch), but I rarely had to frog. I guess I caught my counting mistakes before I switched colors because I usually only had to unstitch the last few stitches to correct a mistake. Now that I park, I feel even less need to grid since no stitches are separated from the main body so there aren't any counting mistakes.

I tried gridding once. After reading about other people's praise for it and I wanted to see what I was missing -- after all, I have my ways of doing things, but I'm always open to learn something new. I gridded a section of the fabric with red fishing line, but the first time I wanted to put my needle into a hole that had fishing line in it, it annoyed me so much that I took all the gridding out.

For me, gridding isn't needed and I don't do it. Other folks swear by it and it's a godsend for them. If you've never done it, try it and see if you think it benefits you.

[socialsue]

I tried but I got too confused and finally gave up because as I would remove the thread as I stitched, sometimes I needed to go back and then couldn't remember which or where I started, etc...so I don't bother with the grid anymore.
socialsue

[Drac]

It's nice to hear I'm not weird and that other people stitch the way I do. I don't seem to have a problem with the counting (though I don't count out more than 10-15 stitches unless I have to) and if I make a mistake, I don't always remove it. I examine the mistake and if it can be simply worked into the design without removing the mistake, I do that. However, that really only seems to work on the larger patterns. Smaller, simpler patterns show mistakes much more easily, though they do benefit from being easier to count.

I might try it. I can see where it might be more useful in a project that covers the whole of the cloth, though I've so far only ever done one project like that. I kind of like to see spaces of fabric in the designs.

I'm now curious what does it mean to be a cross-country stitcher? I see a lot WiPs where people seem to be stitching section by section, completing one section before moving on to the next. I generally start with one color and stitch EVERYTHING from that color that can be reached without counting more than 10-15 stitches out, then I choose an adjacent color to the first one and repeat. This causes my projects to evolve as a whole, instead of in sections. Is that what it means to be a cross-country stitcher?

I appreciate all the gracious answers to these silly questions!

[NeedleAndFork]

I grid because it makes staying organized much easier. When working on a HAED, I use the parking method of stitching, so I have to park as many as 3 - 4 dozen different threads within the next 2 - 3 grids of 10x10 squares. Without a grid in place, this would make me nuts. Now when I park, I tend to count down and over from where I just stitched, and then as a double check, count from one of the bottom corners of the square I am parking in. This completely eliminates any counting mistakes since each parked thread is being double checked.

There are many schools of thought when it comes to gridding. Some people just mark off pages, others do each square. Some do the whole thing at once, others grid as they go. Some prefer thread/floss/fishing line/mettalic thread, others use a pen. If you decide to try gridding, keep all this in mind and don't give up just because one method doesn't work for you - you might end up loving another!

[Mystonique]

Gridding ensures you pick up mistakes fast (within ten stitches)... before you get miles down the track only to find the edges don't meet like they should and the mistake could be anywhere in the last 3 months worth of stitching ... how much do you unpick, how do you cover it up, what else is also out due to that wrong stitch.

It appears that maybe gridding is more popular with hardanger ... at least that's where I learned to do it (tablecloths - not good to find out you are a square out at the end of your outline and have to count back the last 500 squares to find the error).

I wouldn't do a multi page project without gridding. But I do a page or less without.

[pattiebelle]

It's nice to hear I'm not weird and that other people stitch the way I do. I generally start with one color and stitch EVERYTHING from that color that can be reached without counting more than 10-15 stitches out, then I choose an adjacent color to the first one and repeat. This causes my projects to evolve as a whole, instead of in sections. Is that what it means to be a cross-country stitcher?

I appreciate all the gracious answers to these silly questions!

Yes, you are a "cross-country" stitcher! (another term I learned here!) And I also prefer to stitch that way. I did learn to park and do that occasionally, tho. I hope you take the time to learn all that's new to you. The benefits of all the lessons are great. (even if it's just to show you that you like what you're already doing!)

And ... you're welcome

[Serinde]

Like Mystonique, I generally only grid when I'm doing hardanger or a mixed technique (hardanger and pulled work -- you really don't want to be cutting the wrong thing!), but it isn't really gridding in my case. I tram a line down the horizontal centre and across the vertical. Then I put a line in on either side. And I always mark the centre...

With cross stitch, sometimes I do (HAEDs); mostly I don't. Seems to work.

[richardandtracy]

I admit to limited experience (only on project 6 since Jan 2011 when I started), but found I didn't need gridding on Aida with the designs I was using.

This latest project of mine is on linen and there is a lot more benefit to gridding where there are no recognisable lines of holes in the way there are with Aida. I have not gridded, just put in plan page boundaries & centrelines, but I can see that it would make me happier about being sure I've got different parts of the design in the right place. To make up for the lack of gridding, I count things 3 times to make sure, and if all 3 answers are the same I take it as being correct. Not sure which comes out quicker in the long term.

Regards,

Richard

[BizzieLizzie]

I never used to grid because I park in 10x10 blocks and never really had a problem with miscounting, but when I was trying to improve my stitching speed someone suggested gridding to save on the counting and it did speed my stitching up a bit. The thing is the gridding process probably took more time than it saved so I'll make a judgement call on whether I grid future projects.

[RosemaryD]

I tend to park in columns so I don't need a horizontal grid, but I do put one thread in to the right of the column I'm working on, well away from the stitching so I don't sew it in by mistake (very annoying). I move it over each time I complete a column, and use it to double-check I've parked threads in the right place after counting from existing stitches. I've got a project to start soon which isn't going to lend itself too well to stitching in columns so I think for that I'll put in one thread vertically and one horizontally along the edges of a page, then I can park more flexibly.

Interesting to see the variety of methods people use - there really is no right answer!

Rosemary

[Reta]

I grid a quarter to get me started that tends to keep me right

[clockwork]

I'm a cross country stitcher with a preference for projects that aren't full coverage. I like the texture changes from stitched to unstitched. I tried gridding a few times because I would hate to skip a technique that might make stitching better for me but it didn't really do anything for me. I tried both the washable pen version and metallic thread. I preferred the thread because it was still there after the cross-stitching when I got to backstitching the area. But I didn't find myself ever looking at it and I rarely miscounted before I tried it, so it turned out to just be a waste of my time.

One place I will say it turned out to be useful is in places where single stitches are spread across a large area with lots of blank fabric between. I do still occasionally take out the metallic thread and temporarily grid a field of stars or something like that.